NBD/bridge question

[Dave W]

I mentioned steel wool just because it's a time-tested way to get rust off of tools. And even coarse steel wool is relatively fine, copper pads may wind up putting in deep scratches. No harm trying a 3M scuffing pad if it's fine. Buffing compound may help shine it up afterwards, it's not going to get the rust off by itself even with elbow grease or a Dremel.

[dadagoboi]

Naval Jelly is my first choice for rust removal on chrome.  it will quickly remove surface rust without damaging chrome if you are careful not to leave it on too long.  5 minutes or less should do it for surface rust.

There are at least 7 grades of steel wool, bronze wool, etc. from 0000-3, copper and bronze are softer than steel of equal grade.  Don't use anything coarser than 000 on chrome, even then scratches will show up that can't be buffed out.  IMO you're better off using a fine grade 3m pad or better yet, chrome or metal polish (e.g.magic wadding, semichrome, pigsnot, meguiars or mothers).  Rust is softer than steel or chrome so anything that will polish them will remove surface rust.  Pitting is a different story, the chrome is gone.

[Dave W]

Good catch, Carlo. I was thinking in terms of steel and cast iron tools, which aren't chromed.

[dadagoboi]

Good catch, Carlo. I was thinking in terms of steel and cast iron tools, which aren't chromed.

Definitely easier to clean up.  I've learned the hard way how delicate chrome is

[daan]

I love this place. No attitude about my Goodwill-level gear, like some other forums might. Just good solid advice. Thank you all. (And maybe I should have put this in the project section, huh?)

[daan]

Well I figured out why one of the pickups didn't work. I was trying to connect the pups to the new control plate I have, and one of the wires just fell out of the hole in the baseplate. These pups have 3 wires in them (the first weird thing, pretty much every other pup I've worked with had 2 or 4) One of the wires was soldered to the baseplate and the other 2 were just kind of lying inside. I couldn't find the end of the winding wire, either. How much does rewinding a pickup cost, anyway? (more than the whole bass cost, I'm sure) I'm kind of bummed because I actually liked how it sounded. Actually it does seem similar in size to the Gretsch pups I put in my Hofner, and I like how those sound. Or, who is it on here that sells Thunderbuckers? If I'm gonna spend more than what it's worth, I might as well go all out...

Also, this is why you don't try to drill holes at 3am after working 12 hours... of course I didn't think to mark the drill bit for depth until after I went right thru when drilling the new tuner screw holes. Dangit.

In my defense, I didn't screw up any of the other ones.

[exiledarchangel]

The wire soldered in the baseplate is the pickup case ground, it should be soldered together with one of the other two wires from the pickup.
There are alot of people that rewind/repair pickups, I think the cheapest I have seen was about 50$ per coil or something like that.

[daan]

I ended up having my pickups repaired by www.porterpickups.com. I think I paid $40 to have the one put back together (when he got them, he said he found the ends of the winding, and was able to just re-assemble it) and have both wax potted. I was pretty happy I found this guy, I actually liked how the bass sounds, so instead of changing the pups out for something else, I can just put it all back together. Well, assuming I can figure out how to wire all this back together and have it work... Now I just need some time to actually put the bass back together. Working these 12-hour days (nights actually) and little kids at home kinda cut down on my playtime.

[Dave W]

I hadn't heard of him before. Seems like a reasonable price.

[daan]

My crazy summer is wound down now, I got a couple minutes to work on this again. Dave gave me a bridge to replace the ugly one it used to have (thanks again!) I used the ultra-precise method of tracing around the old one, putting the new one in it's place and drilling the new holes. (both bridge plates were the same size, within a couple MM anyway) Either I sneezed when I drilled (5 times, though?) or somebody really messed up where the original one was installed because when I checked it, it was WAAAY off centered.


I don't remember it being this off when I bought the thing. I took it back off, got out some string and the tape measure and marked out where it should be (34" from the nut anyway) I plugged the new set of holes and will measure it all up again BEFORE I drill some more.

This would be why I try to fix (notice I said, "try"  ) $99 instruments and not anything that was valuable. Of course if it had cost more, it probably wouldn't need any work to begin with, right?

I at least got the cavities shielded. I've been working on rewiring it, but since I never worked with pickups with 3 wires before, it's going about as well as the bridge install.

[jumbodbassman]

check to see if the neck shifts back and forth as that may have had something to  do with it also.

[dadagoboi]

check to see if the neck shifts back and forth as that may have had something to  do with it also.

That went through my mind but then I looked at where the original bridge was in relation to the bridge pup.  Can't believe how far off it is. 

I'd definitely find where the neck is in relation to the pup routes by using a straight edge and drawing lines on the body extending the edges of the neck. Center the neck to the routes as much as possible if there's enough slop in the neck pocket .  Then redraw the neck extension lines and find a true centerline.  Locate the new bridge holes parallel to the frets, NOT the pup routes.

[daan]

Thanks for that explination, that made more sense than anything else I've read so far.

[daan]

I measured everything 42 times (including a Jazz bass I borrowed from a friend) and got the bridge attatched. The neck didn't move, I made sure it was solid (the ends of it are completely square, unlike a "real" Jazz, it's snugged right up to the corners and screwed down tight) The bridge SHOULD be right now.

Now I'm tackling the wiring- the control plate is wired for 2-lead pups, and what I have are 3-wire ones. Or at least they look that way... I started stripping the insulation to solder them together and discovered one of the pups' black wires has no metal wire inside the insulation!

Dangit it's always something, isn't it? I'm putting this aside until my next day off and will just play my buddy's J for a while. Unless he doesn't ask for it back.
Oh yeah, the plastics on this thing are really thin and if I put the new control plate where it should be, there's gonna be a gap between it and the guardplate. That and it could have been cut a little better (hey if I'm gonna change half of this out, I might as well do everything, right?) A "real" Jazz guard isn't close to being the right shape, do any of you have recommendations for getting a new guard cut out? I know somebody does it but I can't remember which company. Also I'm sure it'll cost more than I paid for this bass, but it'll look so much better with a nicer guard.